Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Foreword xv
Section 1 What Not to Believe 3
Our First President 5
Red Square 6
Marathon 7
Burning Witches 8
Post Office Motto 9
Arnold Rothstein and the Black Sox Scandal 10
Dr. Mudd and John Wilkes Booth 11
Grave Robbers 12
Survival of the Fittest 13
Eighteenth Amendment 14
Horatio Alger, Jr. 15
Henry Hudson 16
Caesar and Brutus 17
Rope 18
The Hessians 19
First African American in Major League Baseball 20
Dr. Seuss 22
Bunker Hill 23
St. Patrick 24
Cleopatra 25
Charles Lindbergh 26
Plum Pudding 27
Big Ben 28
Mourning Black 29
Diamonds 30
Quickies 32
Painted into a Corner 33
French Fries 34
Thumbs-up 35
"Save Our Ship" 36
Washington's Wooden Teeth 37
Voyage of the Pilgrams 38
"One Small Step for Man" 39
Nathan Hale 40
Congressional Medal of Honor 41
The Edsel 42
Great Dane 43
Shipboard Marriages 44
No-hitters 45
Matador's Red Cape 46
Catgut 47
Slavery in the North 48
Handshake 49
The Common Cold 50
Paul Revere's Ride 51
Andorra's War with Germany 52
Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum 53
More Quickies 54
Johnny Appleseed 55
President James Buchanan 56
Jeanne d'Arc 57
Birthday Paradox 58
Baby Ruth Candy Bar 59
What Happened to Eve? 60
The Windy City 61
Bottled Water 62
Pi 64
Welsh Rarebit or Welsh Rabbit 65
The Puritans and Religious Freedom 66
Mussolini's Trains 67
Thirteenth Amendment 68
Clothes Moths 69
Still More Quickies 70
Bureaucracy 71
Surrender at Yorktown 72
New York Yankee Pinstripes 73
"Miracle on Ice" 74
Cyrano de Bergerac 75
Boston Tea Party 76
Dumb Thief 77
Panama Canal 78
Harry S Truman 79
The Gettysburg Address 80
Reading in Dim Light 81
Pluto in the Solar System 82
William Tell 83
The Rough Riders 84
Center of the Universe 85
"The Star-Spangled Banner" 86
Eleanor Roosevelt Leaves the D.A.R. 87
Catherine the Great 88
Betsy Ross 89
U.S. Extremes 90
Hindenburg 91
Women's Suffrage 92
Longest Overdue Library Book 93
Lizzie Borden 94
Mission Accomplished 95
Pony Express 96
Lusitania 97
Popular vs. Electoral Votes 98
Campaign Promises 99
Lotteries 100
Hydrophobia 101
Yet More Quickies 102
Jefferson's Declaration of Independence 103
The Devil's Bible 104
President Fillmore's Bathtub 105
Who Invented Baseball? 106
Gone Fishin' 108
The Round Table 109
Unelected President 110
Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold 111
Custer's Last Stand 112
July Fourth 113
"Dewey Defeats Truman" 114
Baker's Dozen 115
Three-Dimensional Baseball 116
George Washington and the Cherry Tree 117
The Shortest War 118
The Jewish Cardinal 119
Prognostication 120
Davy Crockett 121
Mason-Dixon Line 122
Napoleon in Russia 123
General Grant Declines 124
Captain Kidd 125
Recycle Numbers 126
Pennsylvania Dutch 127
Once Again, More Quickies 128
The Dark Ages 129
The Exception Proves the Rule 130
Eisenhower's Misgivings 131
"There's a Sucker Born Every Minute" 132
Section 2 Says Who? 133
Section 3 The Pundits 145
End Note 155
